Israel Gat

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Israel Gat is Director of Cutter Consortium's Agile Product & Project Management practice and a Fellow of the Lean Systems Society. He is recognized as the architect of the Agile transformation at BMC Software. Under his leadership, BMC software development increased Scrum users from zero to 1,000 in four years. Dr. Gat's executive career spans top technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Digital, and EMC. Read more ...

From Here to Agile2021

Israel Gat | Sep 20, 2011 No Responses

Sep 202011

Agile 2011 has been something of an epiphany for me. The confluence of workshops, discussions and interactions with Cutter presenters in the conference led me to thinking of the shape of things to come in quite a different manner than I used to. In particular, I reached the conclusion the forthcoming 2011-2021 vintage will be quite different from the tried and true Agile 2001-2011 vintage. I have no doubt the nuts-and-bolts of Agile will continue to be a major component of the Agile “curriculum.” You simply must get the Agile practices working at the team level. Metaphorically speaking, you are building towers in the sand if your teams are not proficient in the Agile method. …

Originality and Operations

Israel Gat | Sep 11, 2011 1 Response

Sep 112011

Last February I developed an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) problem that placed me squarely in the category of “interesting patient” (as one of the physician I saw told me with a wry grin). Just at the point the number of medical specialists I had to consult grew to the level that my medical insurance started suspecting a fraud, I reached the conclusion that while nothing is too wrong with any single organ, I am probably struggling with some from of a system problem. Since then I have been known to quip that henceforth Jerry Weinberg will be the only “physician” whose help I would seek.. Imagine my delight getting the thoughts captured below from Ernest …

I Might Not be Your Customer, But I am Your Prosumer

Israel Gat | Sep 3, 2011 No Responses

Sep 032011

My friend Annie Shum has drawn my attention to prosumers and their effect on the value chain. According to Annie, three things are happening in an interlinked manner: Consumers become prosumers – they both consume and produce; consequently, The value chain becomes composite; hence, The whole product is transformed. Consider, for example, a keep-the-memories photo storing, sharing, processing and printing service like Snapfish. The company must have hundreds of millions of customers, many of which are obviously creative. A creative customer who prepares a photo album of her son’s wedding, might design a template she will use to produce the album. This template could be posted and sold on the Snapfish web site for …

San Francisco on the Water

Israel Gat | Aug 21, 2011 No Responses

Aug 212011

San Francisco, CA Aging Israelis like me are very fond of the song San Francisco on the Water [1]. We actually melt when we hear Arik Einstein sing it. His golden voice brings back to our hearts precious memories of what we call Good Old Israel: being in harmony with ourselves, with one another and with the mission. In our youth we did not need the inspiring words of JFK – we were really really really asking what we could do for our country. I am literally sitting at this very moment on the water in San Francisco. I am sure I look absolutely lost to the world. I did not have the time to …

It’s Morning in San Francisco

Israel Gat | Aug 20, 2011 No Responses

Aug 202011

San Francisco, CA. Believe you me – they don’t come any better than that. A morning to die for, or, even better, to live for. I have spent the better part of this gorgeous morning on the phone trying to reason with various Orbitz and JetBlue service/sales reps. Each one of them was courteous, professional and really really really trying to help me. However, things did not add up between these service representatives, the numerous systems they use (“Please wait one minute, Sir – I need to access another system”) and, may I say, my “legitimate” travel needs. Actually, I am under a fairly stern warning from one of the JetBlue service reps that I …

Roadmap to More Than 200 Agile Sessions

Israel Gat | Aug 6, 2011 1 Response

Aug 062011

More than 200 sessions will be held during the coming week in Agile 2011. This creates a problem of choosing, not choice, for every participant. While this is a wonderful problem to have, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming. The Cutter team at Agile 2011 will hold a daily retrospective to help all of us navigate through the many parallel session in the conference. By so doing we expect to accomplish the following: Seeing the conference as a whole instead of ‘this presentation, that workshop.’ You can think about it as kind of ‘see the forest for the trees’. Connecting the dots by identifying linkages between a presentation one person attended and another one which …

Detailed Outline for “Technical Debt: Assessment and Reduction”

Israel Gat | Aug 5, 2011 No Responses

Aug 052011

Below is the detailed outline for my August 8, 1:30-5:00PM Technical Debt Workshop in Agile 2011. I look forward to meeting you and interacting with you in the conference before, during and after this workshop! Best, Israel Technical Debt: Assessment and Reduction Part I: Technical Debt in the Overall Context of the Software Process A Holistic Model of the Software Process Two Aspects of Output Three Aspects of Technical Debt Five Aspects of Software Part II: What Really is Technical Debt? What’s in a Metaphor? Code Analysis Time is Money Monetizing Technical Debt Typical Stakeholder Dialog Around Technical Debt Analysis of the Cassandra Code Project Dashboard Part III : Case Study – NotMyCompany, Inc. …

Detailed Outline for “Super-Fresh Code”

Israel Gat | Aug 4, 2011 1 Response

Aug 042011

Below is the detailed outline for my August 10, 9:00AM Agile 2011 presentation. I look forward to meeting you and interacting with you in the conference before, during and after this presentation! Best, Israel Super-Fresh Code Part I: The Changing Nature of Change Traditional View of Agile as a Software Method A New Context for Agile Hyper-Segmented Global Markets A Modern Testing Value Chain Prosumption All the Way to the Brand Part II: Agile –> Agility Agility as an End-to-End Challenge The Value Delivery Journey Confluence of Agile, Cloud, Mobile and Social Everything as a Service Multiple Forms of Agile Part III: Your Agile Process has been Obsoleted A Passage in Time with Profound Implications …

Getting Ready for Agile 2011 – Part II

Israel Gat | Jul 28, 2011 No Responses

Jul 282011

In her recent post Getting Ready for Agile 2011, Anne Mullaney gave an outline of my forthcoming sessions at the conference. Specifically, she highlighted the emergence of new forms of Agility: “Super-Fresh Code” is a term Israel coined (an extension of the “Super-Fresh Web” concept) to describe code that results from seizing upon the opportunities opened by combining recent advances in Agile software methods, cloud computing, mobile applications, and social networking. With the right mix, a company can outgun, outclass and outmaneuver its competition through real-time requirements management and superior business designs. Essentially, super-fresh code becomes the source of competitive advantage. This is a workshop that will make you think about Agile in ways you never …

Why You Need Agile to Cross the Chasm

Israel Gat | Jun 28, 2011 1 Response

Jun 282011

Many of the discussions I am exposed to as an agile consultant are about this question, “Have Agile methods crossed the chasm?” The client wants to know whether he or she will be using a software method that has reached a certain level of maturity and acceptance. Needless to say, the question is of critical importance. A client might be willing to be an early adopter, or even desire to be an early adopter, but he or she wants to be very clear up front about the maturity level of the software method to be adopted. As important as the question is, I will not try to debate it here, as beauty is often in …

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Israel Gat

Originality and Operations

I Might Not be Your Customer, But I am Your Prosumer

San Francisco on the Water

It’s Morning in San Francisco

Roadmap to More Than 200 Agile Sessions

Detailed Outline for “Technical Debt: Assessment and Reduction”

Why You Need Agile to Cross the Chasm

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